New businesses

For more information on different company forms and establishing a business in Finland, see also the web sites Invest in Finland and Suomi.fi.

Duty to notify

Today, most businesses must be registered at the Trade Register. A start-up notification must be submitted for a new business, containing basic information on the business and the trade it carries on.

Following businesses are invariably obliged to file a start-up notification:

A private trader who

carries on a licenced trade; or

who has a permanent place of business, i.e. premises separate from his/her own residence; or

who has in his/her employment a person other than his/her spouse or child or grandchild who is underage or otherwise under his/her guardianship.

However, persons engaged in agriculture or fishing are not under obligation to file a notification.

2. General partnerships and limited partnerships

3. Limited companies

4. Housing companies (The start-up notifications of housing companies are handled at the Local Register Offices.)

5. Co-operatives

6. Mutual insurance companies

7. Savings banks

8. Mortgage associations

9. Insurance associations

10. Public businesses

11. Tenant-owners' societies

12. Non-profit organizations and foundations that, for the purpose of carrying on a trade, have a permanent place of business or employ at least one person.

13. Foreign traders who establish a branch in Finland.

14. European economic interest groups and interest groups registered elsewhere that establish a place of business in Finland.

15. Societas Europaea

16. European Cooperative Societies

A start-up notification can be submitted even by a business not obliged to do so. For example, an enterprise mortgage used as a security for a loan can only be registered on the property of a registered business enterprise. Registration is the most efficient way of protecting the trade of a business enterprise.